Grant's Farm

We took a trip to Grant's Farm today with some good friends. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun! Grant's Farm was all decorated for Fall/Halloween, so it was fun to pose in front of the mums, pumpkins and corn stalks. Though some of the more spooky things were a bit intimidating. Kinsey was the only one brave enough to get her picture with Dave in front of this spooky Halloween character!!!

The kids got to feed goats milk from a bottle. They were able to see spider monkeys play, kangaroos taking naps, a bald eagle, feed llamas and camels and listen to macaws talking to each other.
We also got to see two animal shows. One was more of a variety show of various animals doing tricks and sharing special talents. The second was an Elephant Show. The kids got to ride the carousel too (a new feature since we visited last time). We also got to visit the Clydesdale's Stables at the end of our visit and two 1 year olds came over for us to pet. Kinsey really enjoyed this part . . . one of the horses in the stables inside the farm was named "Jessie" and that of course was her favorite. Simply because it reminded her of "Jessie" from "Toy Story", which is one of her favs!! Jackson's favorite was riding the tram that gives you a tour of the grounds and brings you into the farm.

We finished our trip with supper at the Incredible Pizza Company. A really fun, inexpensive, family friendly place to eat and play. And we scored FREE play passes with a scratch off card, so the guys raced go carts with the big boys and the kids got to play and ride some things for FREE! YAY!! Jackson said his second favorite thing from the day was racing go carts with Daddy!!

Fire Station Open House

Our fire station held an open house to the community this past Tuesday night. Dave had rehearsal and a meeting, so the kids and I went to check it out. A good friend of ours is a fireman and he showed us around . . . explaining things, helping the kids climb in and out of any truck they wanted, letting the kids try on some of the gear, and answering any questions we had. It was a lot of fun . . . and ever since, Jackson's preferred dress up outfit has been the fireman. He has been saving Kinsey from fires and giving "tours" of our "station" to his "Fire Monkey". Jackson's preschool will be taking a field trip the end of the month to the fire station again, so I suspect that he will continue his interest in being a fireman for a while!! : )

Go Cardinals!

We went to our last Cardinals game for the season today! We were once again blessed with tickets through my dad's work and got to share the game with Dave's brother-in-law and nephew too.










It was "Stand for Stan Day" during the sixth inning . . . honoring Stan "The Man" Musial.
In honor of the special day, every person sitting in seat 6 got $6 at the Team Store (Stan's number). Josiah was sitting in Seat 6 and won $6 that he used to buy a little Cardinals bat (a great way to remember his 1st visit to Busch Stadium & 1st Cardinals game). And our special treat of the day was my dad bringing double dipped homemade caramel apples . . . YUM!! Kinsey however preferred hers without . . . so we sacrificially ate the caramel off of her apple so she could enjoy hers plain . . . silly girl!!







The game went into 11 innings (which was too much for Kayleigh . . . she zonked out before the 9th), we got out of a jam with an amazing double-play with bases loaded and Holliday hit a walk-off run all in the 11th to win the game! We always love ending our visit to Busch Stadium with fireworks and a Cardinals win!!!

1st Day of Bow Season: Hunting Buddies

Our Girls and More

The girls have on their "I Love Being a Big Sister" and "I Love Being a Little Sister" shirts. Of course, you can't see them because Kinsey insisted on "holding" Kayleigh for the picture. But it is cute anyway!

We introduced Kayleigh to puffs this week. She was VERY quick to figure out how to pick it up and get it to her mouth. Jackson and Kinsey have loved taking turns putting one on her tray . . .it has been very exciting!!

Apple Orchard

Fall is officially here, so we spent the morning at an apple orchard just down the road from our house. It was a fun and nearly free family day, what could be better!?

The kids had a GREAT time exploring the straw maze, over and over again!







And we of course had to have a little apple cider and an apple cider doughnut! It was a great setting to snap a few pictures of the kids too!!

Kayleigh Faith - 8 Months

Walk for Life & Applefest

Dave and I were the leaders for our church's Walk for Life team this year. The Walk raises money for the Pregnancy Care Clinic that provides free services to young women and families in crisis in our community and a neighboring town. It is a GREAT cause and we were more than happy to organize a team of walkers and raise pledges! And it turned into a wonderful teaching moment with our kids as we went around our neighborhood asking for pledges and then all participating in the walk this morning!

After the Walk, we were able to attend the Applefest also taking place in the Park today. There were lots of craft booths and vendors, a bounce house and pony rides. The kids were troopers after a late night at the Cardinals game and then an early morning with the Walk, so they got to bounce and ride the ponies! We even came home with some apple cider . . . yum!!

Our Night at Busch Stadium

We were once again blessed with Cardinals tickets through my Dad's work . . . so we got to go see the Cardinals take on the Padres Friday night. It was a great game and perfect weather! The Cards scored 14 runs!!! Here are a few pictures from our night at Busch Stadium!

Kayleigh Faith-7 1/2 Months

Time with Grammy

We enjoyed having Grammy join us on our semi-annual shopping trip to The Mills in St. Louis. We go at the end of every winter and summer to shop the major clearance racks and we always find amazing deals for the kids. Plus it is a nice change of scenery and a super fun place to take them to play! They were troopers while we drug them all over, so towards the end they got to ride the train with Grammy.

We missed Papa, but he wasn't able to join us due to his crazy workload right now. But here is the bow that Papa found for Jackson a few weeks ago . . . it was an awesome deal and he has loved shooting arrows at a target just like Daddy. He can pull it back, but still needs Daddy's help to hold the bow and steady it for him. He especially enjoyed visiting Cabella's and Bass Pro on our shopping trip. He is sporting his new red Bass Pro shirt under his Spiderman costume!!

Jackson's 1st Day of Preschool